Chris had that dream again, the one that had began haunting him for the last two days. The one which made sleep difficult for him to sleep and had been forcing him to keep himself awake.

He would have preferred to remain awake, but the battle with the corrupted Hephatantians had left him feeling drained. He tried to remember how he had fallen asleep but his memories from his final clash with Agathocles were a fractured mess that he failed to put back together completely.

"Fighting Nimue again would be preferable to this." he thought as he shook from the frostbitten winds that whipped his body.

He wished that he could move to generate heat, but that wasn't an option in this twisted nightmare. He could only stand in an open tandra and look at the blizzard, hoping to identify the others figures who stood alongside.

He had never been able to figure out their features, but he could see them there. But for the first time Chris felt something as he stood in this frozen hell. It was not a physical sensation, more like a mental one.

He could feel a pair of eyes focused directly him with a hungry intent, like a hidden Lion looking at a Zebra. He could feel the strange presence getting closer and closer to him and though he tried to fight against his invisible chains to escape, nothing happened.

"Well, well, we meet again boy." a familiar voice whispered into his ear. "You have tried the gift and you love it, don't you.... would you like to try some more."

The world was immediately engulfed by a bright golden light that blinded him, and that was when Chris awoke with gasp upon his bed. His body was drenched in sweat and he had grabbed onto his blankets tightly enough that his knuckles had turned white.

"What Is happening to me." he whispered as he hugged his body which was cold.

Chris wasn't an idiot, something off had happened during his battle with Agathocles. The splattered remains of the man made him sick to his stomach and Chris had seen plenty of battlefield gore before. The idea that he had spent heavens know how long punching the elfs face into something else was unnerving.

Adding the current dreams that were haunting him just made it clear that something was seriously wrong with him. He wanted to tell Ishtar, Ursa, Hamanymu or hell, even Pyrrha. But could he be able to tell them that he might not be mentally sound.

Could he be willing to saddle Ishtar with more unnecessary weight to add to the tons of pressure resting on her shoulders. It felt selfish for him to burden them with such simple issues, after all Chris was sure that he could handle it just fine.

He rolled out of his bed and walked out to the balcony of his pent room, the cold soft winds of the morning were a better relief to the stinging blizzard winds of his dream. He had been relocated to a new building and thus he could see the one that had been attacked and the one in which he had given the arch traitor a brutal end.

"There is nothing wrong with what we did, he deserved it for even trying to get in our way. The bastard should have learned his place." a inner voice shouted in defiance. "And besides, the look of terror in his face and his pathetic pleading as we pounded him into the earth was exquisite."

Chris tried to bury under thoughts of disgust, but even as he did, he knew that deep down, a part of himself agreed with such a sentiment. It made a knot in his stomach and taking a deep breath he resolved to deal with this.

"I have to Ishtar about this." he said, and yet he doubted it.

XXXXXXX

The sun rose after so long and Chris took a hot bath before changing into his armour. This time he didn't leave Lucius-Aurora and he found awaiting him at the door, Pyrrha Ulster all on her own.

"Your grace." she said with a head tilt of acknowledgement.

"Pyrrha," he returned the gesture. " Where are the others?"

"At the feasting hall across the street."

"Then let us go. I can't stand to be alone in this room any longer." Chris was also starving, heavy use of magical energy would leave just a about everyone hankering for a meal.

"Are you feeling okay?" Pyrrha asked as they walked down the floors of the building. "You took quite a beating yesterday. Agathocles blasted you out of the building."

"I can still feel an ache in my muscles, but everything is okay." Chris looked at Pyrrha and he could see just how different she had been from when he first met her on the second time.

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Her hair was longer, her armour had changed and even the spear in her hands was completely different. But the biggest change was the way in which she carried herself, Pyrrha was generally more happy.

"How is aunt Morrigan. I haven't seen her since we returned from the Nexus of Narratives?" he asked.

"Mom's good now. She started a bakery on the side surprisingly."

"Is it any good?" in the past it was no secret that Morigan Ulster and cooking canceled each other out harder than two magnets of the same pole.

"Surprisingly it doesn't taste like salt mixed with pepper and wet flour." this gained a few laughs from the two as they remembered all of the culinary disasters of the past.

"It's good that you have made peace with her."

"For the longest time I thought that hated me after what I did to you, but she never did." Chris wasn't exstly feel about that piece of information. "She wa disappointed in me, but she was angry with my dad."

Her father, Neptune O'Dayne was a black spot upon the Ulster family. Chris had never thought much about the man, in truth he didn't have that much memory of him.

The most that he remembered about him was that after Natalia's dark half attacked him and hospitalised Morrigan, Neptune O'Dayne had been one of the first traitors to publicly join her. The Crowns rebellion as many called was a full blown civil war.

Many died, though the rebels were hunted down near extinction and those who were captured and put on trail were sent to the Domain, a prison in its own dimension from which no escape was possible.

Chris bit his lips and he knew that the question which bubbled up through his throat was inappropriate, but he could not sate his curiosity. "Do you visit..."

"Once..." there was a look of slowly building disdain in Pyrrha's voice.

"What did he say, about everything that he did?"

"That he regretted nothing..." the Elf coughed trying to hold back a sob and Chris felt like garbage for allowing "...what a prick, am I right?"

"Well enough about that guy." Chris didn't need anymore of this depressing atmosphere with everything that was going on. " Tell me about how the rest of the your family is doing ?"

"Cuchulain is doing great, his veterinary clinic has been growing in Tuat." Pyrrha smiled

"And Paris?" he asked.

Paris was her youngest sibling, he was adopted by her mother at the age of two years. just as much as she loved them, though she never remembered her father's stance on him.

He stood out in the Ulster family as a purple haired bowman rather than lover of the spear though he inherited his new families deadly martial prowess, Morrigan would have it no other way.

"He is at Witchen Hall. His teachers all say that he will make an impressive Wizard in future. As soon as we get back, I plan to see him."

""Maybe we can go together. I have always wanted to visit the oldest school in Avalon." Chris said.

"Together." Pyrrha responded with a sly smile. "Like a date. I will hold you to it."

Chris halted in shock and his face burning red and his brain scrambled in suprise and excitement?. Pyrrha on the other hand kept walking with a grin and a skip in her step.

XXXXXXX

The feasting hall was a solemn sight to behold. Thousands of Avalonian and Hephatantian soldiers sat and ate their meals in silence. Yesterday's attack had truly left everyone spooked and apprehensive of eachother.

As Chris and Pyrrha walked in to their teammates table he caught a few side glances from Avalonians and Hephatantians to eachother. Though the elves of Hephatantian seemed to be distrustful of eachother than the foreigners.

They found the seat where Ursa, Thor and Livingstone were seated. The Fae was the first to see them and he gave a large smile as he waved towards them.

"You finally woke up, we were starting to get worried about you." the Fae stated enthusiastically.

"Nothing to get worried about, it was just some deluded Dark energy user." Chris responded as he sat down.

Ursa forced her eyes from her book and Chris could see a worried face plastered upon it. She nervously looked from side to side before leaning in and whispering. "Please for the love of all that is holy do not say anything about that political party."

"Why?"

"Let's say that it has a few very active supporters in the city. Some soldier badmouthed them this morning and some of his comrades jumped and stabbed him." Ursa's eyes were still wildly scanning around and Chris looked to the Hephatantians with a new found paranoia.

It felt like no matter which one of them that he looked at, their eyes were rested on him and their hands rested tightly on their weapons. "They can't kill us if we kill them first. A sudden Alpha-Spell would be enough to clear most of the room."

He paused unable to understand what he had just thought. He seriously considered killing all these people with his Alpha-Spell, the equivalent of setting off a nuclear bomb in the middle of a city. It instantly killed his appetite and he wanted to be out of this hall.

"Where is Hamanymu?" he asked as he looked at the cooked bacon and milk bread which rested upon their table in large amounts. He knew his friend well enough and Hamanymu Mulengu was like a vacuum for good food.... well him and Thor.

Though now Thor was eating with reservedness to him. He used his left hand to eat, whilst his right hand was clutching on to the handle of Mjølnir.

"Where is Hamanymu?" he asked, feeling ever more unnerved by the Hephatantian eyes drilling into his body.

"He is delivering a report and tomorrow to Ishtar." Ursa responded, her attention fully reabsorbed into the Grimoire upon her lap.

"Excuse me?"

*Well, you were not yet down from your room and we needed to hand in our report. Hamanymu volunteered." Thor responded in Ursa stade.

Chris took in a sharp deep breath and he clinched his jaw, tightened his hands into a fist and stopped himself from giving into the sudden burst of rage. "I believe I am the captain of this team. Every and all reports go through me."

"Relax, it is a simp...." Pyrrha tried to interject but Chris was not having it. He rose up and slammed his fist upon the table almost splitting it in two.

"I am the team captain, I will not be userped." he spat before turning, ignoring everyones protests and walking out of the room.

He didn't know why this had bothered him so much, but he would rectify it. He would go straight to Ishtar's temporary office and he would make it clear to her and Hamanymu, who the true captain of his team was.

XXXXXXX

Ishtar's office was in a nearby building and though Chris was mobbed by adoring crowds of citizens, he was able to slip through them and into the safty of the premises. He walked through the building, passing multiple high ranking Avalonian Knights and Asikari.

His destination was made as the two Vortiguard stood at the door to Ishtar's office. He knew that the talkative one was called Jane, though the other one he could conjure up a name. But it didn't matter, he wasn't here to learn about them.

"Your grace, welcome." the male Vortiguard said coldly and stoically.

"Thank you...." he trailed off as he tried to think of anything to call the man.

"Kobe, your grace. My name is Kobe."

"Right, thank you Kobe." he then turned to Jane, who was of course grinning very wildly. "Hello to you as we Jane."

"Thanks, Chris. You had a really good fight yesterday, you really whooped that guy good." she said whilst supercharged with excitement and Kobe face palmed in frustration. "We should spar some time. You can even bring your girlfriend Pyrrha so that she doesn't get jealous."

Chris did a double take and almost chocked on his saliva. He could not believe what this Vortiguard had just uttered, he was ready to tear into her when the doors handle began twisting and out walked Hamanymu.

He paused and looked startled at Chris's presence here. Both friends stood silently with their eyes locked for an ungodly few seconds. Hamanymu slowly opened his mouth and asked. "Hey Chris, what exactly are you doing here?"

"I would like to ask you the same thing?"

"Oh, I saw that you must still be sleeping or resting, so I volunteered to bring Ishtar our report on yesterdays attack." Hamanymu responded and though Chris felt a prick of irritation, he could not think of anything to fuel the fires of his rage.

"You should have asked me first," Chris gnashed his teeth together.

"Well, I figured that it wasn't a big deal." the red and gold knight didn't seem at all intimidated by Chris's obvious aggression. "When you feeling like less of a ass, you know where to find me."

Hamanymu then walked away and Chris wondered why he was so angry. He scoffed and he walked into the room.